The key element that the politicians fail to consider is the incredible burden
this places on small businesses.

How does a business determine the
correct tax rate to charge on a sale to any specific address in the U.S. and the
applicable state and local taxes, and which particular products may or may not
be taxable in that location?

Then how does the amount collected get
transmitted to each of those various state and local entities. (Write checks to
dozens of entities for amounts ranging from pennies to a few dollars to an
occasional significant amount? Electronic transfer from the business account to
each of those entities, and on what schedule? Some central clearing house to
provide all the accounting and payment transfers? And how much will it cost for
software and fees? And how secure or open to fraud can these systems be?

Frankly, this would be enough of a hassle to force a lot of small
businesses to just quit. But, the big businesses pushing these schemes see that
as a feature, not a flaw.

you are correct, the small businesses should not be
forced to determine the rate for every location. They should only be required to
collect state income taxes and disregard the local sales and use taxes. There
are only 50 states, and since a number of them (I don't know how many) do
not have sales tax, that would be less than 50 tax rates they would need to
track.

It would also benefit small businesses to pick up local sales
they are now losing to on-line businesses.

I am sure the market would
quickly produce a service to track that minefield of tax rates and sell that
service for a small fee.

I would rather hire someone at the local
Target than buy from Targetdotcom. It does more for my local economy.